"I don't want your money anymore," Jackson told Jessica from across the world, his voice impatient. "I bet you can even pay back that huge amount within a couple of months. However, I want something more important than money."
"And what is that, Jackson? What do you need from me?" Jessica asked.
"Arrange one of your daughters for me. In two days, I will fly to France, your home, and take her with me as my wife. I don't want stories. I repeat I don't want stories," Jackson warned, then angrily ended the call without waiting for Jessica's response.
Jessica fell onto the sofa in the parlour like a log of wood, staring at the white ceiling in a dilemma. Jackson was demanding something far outside their agreement. She knew she owed him a hundred thousand US dollars, but that shouldn't force her to marry off her daughter to him. She wracked her brain for a solution but to no avail. She knew the type of man she was dealing with. He wasn't a joker; he easily got what he wanted, whenever he wanted it. Disobeying him meant playing with a deadly fire that could consume you in an instant.
Although Jackson lived a mysterious life, he was a no-nonsense man, and people feared him. Nobody wanted to mess with him because they knew the consequences. He had been in and out of prison on many occasions before his rise to fame, facing accusations of rape, fraud, and murder. This made it difficult for people to form close relationships with him, which scared Jessica. She didn't want to be associated with someone like him, and she certainly didn't want any of her daughters near him, let alone married to him. She was simply trying to protect her children from the devil.
Jessica considered her daughters, Helen and Kelly, who were innocent of love's complexities. She wondered how they would cope if she dared to marry one of them off. However, a sudden thought popped into her head. The name of her late sister's daughter, Kate, whom Jessica viewed as a thorn in her flesh, surfaced. Kate was currently living with her.
A mischievous smile spread across Jessica's face as she envisioned her plan. She clapped her hands together as if she'd won a gold medal for being the smartest person on earth. She was going to marry Kate off in place of her daughter. Jessica saw Kate as the most suitable candidate for the offer; it was like using her to pay off the family's debt. The more she thought about her idea, the happier she became, almost to the point of being smug. It wasn't easy to come up with such a brilliant solution, in her mind.
"Kate, Kate!" Jessica shouted like a madwoman, her happiness bubbling over. She almost burst out laughing.
"Yes, ma?" came Kate's tiny voice from the kitchen. She raced downstairs to avoid wasting Jessica's time and, more importantly, to avoid receiving some of the hot slaps Jessica was known for. Kate wasn't aware of what awaited her. She appeared before Jessica with her wet hands, which she hadn't bothered drying out of fear of being late.
"You, daughter of the devil, didn't you hear your monstrous name earlier, or were you expecting me to fry you eggs before you came downstairs to answer me?" Jessica yelled at the top of her lungs, seeming a little bit peeved.
"I'm sorry, ma," Kate replied, fearing a slap or worse.
"Kate, you're going to be married to Jackson. Just know that you're doing yourself a favour by marrying him. At least he can take care of you, rather than you sitting around this house like a corpse doing nothing," Jessica told Kate while pacing around the parlour, using her hands to emphasize her point. A small smile played on her lips.
"But, Mum…" Kate managed to say, but Jessica shut her up with a hand on her lips.
"No buts and no complaints. And if you want to address me, remove that 'Mum.' I'm not your mother. I only adopted you because your mother died years ago, leaving you in my care. The only way to get rid of you is to get you out of my way and out of the family. No matter what, I can never allow my daughters to marry that problematic dude – oh, I mean your husband, Jackson. It's either you marry him in two days or leave my house," Jessica said, then smugly left the parlour, humming a song along the way.
Kate stood in the parlor and in the same spot where Jessica passed her the message and hot tears rushed down her eyes. She had heard about Jackson, and how ruthless, selfish, and arrogant he was. Not only that, but he lived a mysterious life that no one knows about, although he was known to be rich everything about him remained a mystery.
Kate knew that Jessica never loved her, together with her two daughters but that decision she made that day about her, was so unfair to her. She was going to let her marry an ex-convict, a rejected somebody in the society, someone who nobody dares to mess with. If the whole accusations surrounding him were true, then she was a goner, Kate told herself. It was just like going from a Frying pan to a fire.
********
Kate has so many scars on her body, some which were fresh, and some which were old and slowly fading, and all were caused by Jessica and her two cruel daughters. They all mal-treated her, beat her up, gave her loads of work to do, insulted her dead mother, and sometimes starved her. They always go out shopping every week but have never bought her any clothing, all her clothes were worn out and old, and all this mal-treatment made her lose her self-confidence. She was so scared of human beings because she believed that they were evil.
Again, the thought of staying with another devil made her so sad and angry, was she born to suffer and die? She asked herself in tears. Why would Jessica decide to shove her off like that, and why would Jack, whom she had never set eyes on before, request to marry her instead of Jessica's daughters, she wondered in confusion.
***********
The next morning, which was a day before the arrival of Jackson, Jessica called Kate and shocked her with the proposal of taking her to shop for clothes. Kate was shocked and at the same time not happy, she knew why Jessica was doing that. She wanted her to look her best so that the almighty Jackson wouldn't reject her, and go for her real daughters instead. Because, who would want to marry a low-class girl, who barely knows much about the world? Someone who has been locked up inside the big house without anybody to talk to.
These thoughts made her remember her mother, nobody can ever treat you good like your own mother she thought inside her. If only her mother Becky was alive, life wouldn't have been so unfair to her. She wouldn't have pushed her to marry Jackson the mysterious man, who she didn't even know much about.
"Kate, Helen will lend you some of her clothes, so you can change into them and follow me to the shopping mall, your husband will be coming tomorrow to pick you up, and you have to look good, if he rejects you, you are moving out of my house, trust me, the street is not going to be nice to you even" Jessica threatened the hell out of Kate.